t LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






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. Ms 



| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J' 






ANTIQUITY ®F COIN 






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&C. 



BY WILLIAM HUME, 





MEDIUM. 



NEW YORK: 
M. B. WYNKOOP, BOOK & JOB PRINTER, 

No. 12 ANN STREET, NEAR BROADWAY. * 

18 5 6. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS, 



ELENOIRE 



&c. 



i 



* * * n * 



Bi WILLIAM HUME, 



MEDIUM, 



-»« m%/m-++ 



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NEW YORK: 
M. B. WYNKOOP, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 

No. 12 ANN STREET, NEAR BROADWAY. 

1856. 

e/ 



■ V 



THE USRAftfl 

IOr COMGKEHI 



COPTEIGHT SECOEED, 



PREFACE. 



What have we here, now ? A treatise on the Antiquity of Coins — and 
that by " the Spirits," too ! Why, I thought they had progressed far beyond 
the dead past, and were basking in the splendors of the sun-lit future! but 
here we have them presenting us a plate filled with rusty, worn out, anti- 
quated coins, fit only for those who spend their time in raking over the 
dust of buried years ! What next are they to give us ? But, patience ! my 
dear — wished for reader ; let me say a word to you about the pa><t, ere you 
condemn it utterly. The past — what is it? The breath of our breath — the 
life of our life — the originator of thought to us all! A land abounding in 
bogs and fens filled with hobgoblins, satyrs, and chimeras dire, if you will 
hare it so ; yet radiant with many a bright spot shined upon by that glo- 
rious luminary that began its course far back in the ages. We have a rich 
inheritance of truths handed down to us from the past, by a noble army of 
Media, whom we have beheld filing along its highways and by-ways, reach- 
ing even to our own times. Some of these we have worshipped ! What 
scenes have been painted for us by those grand ma6ter-painters of the past ! 
Look at the coloring of many of their pictures — how true to nature ? How 
enchanting the landscape — the mountain — the valley — the winding stream 
— the majestic river — all overspread with light that radiates to our inmost 
hearts ! Blessings on the past ! and blessings on its teachers ! Hardly the 
least among these are those "speechless little fellows" that have served as 
media to convey from one to another the various species of property 
claimed by men, and which, aside from their legitimate use, convey to us 
much information respecting the men and events of past times. They 

3 



lv\ PREFACE. 

speak to us in the first article contained in this little volume. Let me be- 
speak your attention to their teachings, kind reader. 

Allow me a brief word in respect to the medium through whom the 
articles contained in this volume were written, and whose name appears on 
the title page. He is a young man who has spent most of his days in, 
Massachusetts — in Chicopee, Lowell and Springfield. A year or two he 
" followed the sea" for a living ; but the greater portion of the time, his 
occupation has been that of a mechanic ; and our national work-shops, in 
Springfield, have been witness to the diligence he displayed in that busi- 
ness. His education — in the ordinary sense of that term — is quite limited, 
— less than is usually obtained in our district schools, — reading, writing, 
and arithmetic being the extent to which it was carried, in school or else- 
where. With the exception of letters to his friends, he had never written 
a sentence of English composition till the commencement of his medium- 
ship. This commenced a few years since. He has been a medium for the 
rappings, table-moving, speaking and writing ; but is now chiefly a me- 
dium for speaking and writing. His utterances, while in the trance state, 
are frequently of the most elevated character, both as to the thoughts and 
the words in which they are clothed. No one who is acquainted with him 
can fail to perceive that they are not the productions of his own mind ; and 
such are often the attending circumstances of their delivery, that those who 
hear him are convinced, beyond a doubt, that they emanate, at the time 
from minds beyond and above his. Sometimes the thoughts are clothed in 
poetic language, and profess to be given, through him, by Byron. I have 
heard him utter, while entranced, poems, of considerable length, that, for 
beauty and sublimity of thought and elegance of diction, Byron himself, iu 
his happiest moods, would hardly have surpassed ; certainly, as an im- 
promptu effort, would not have excelled. 

Mr. Hume has written, as a medium, various articles, of different length, 
and in altogether dissimilar style. A few pieces have been written in 
"Jreek and Latin poetry — the language correct, and the versification accu- 
se. O f hers are discourses, essays, treatises, <fec, upon various topics, in 
English. From these the articles in this volume have been selected, and are 
now presented to the public. To the article on the Antiquity of Coins na 
jam was signed, so that it is not known to whom to assign the authorship. 



PREFACE. . V. 

One of the poems has the name of Walter Scott attached to it, which was the 
name annexed by the medium's hand. Any one acquainted with Scott's 
poems cannot fail to discover his peculiar style in this poem. The subject, 
also, is of a character that Scott's muse loved to dwell upon. The four pieces 
with the name of Byron attached to them have been recently written — with- 
in the present month. The style of the first three the intelligent reader will 
perceive not to be derogatory to Byron's Muse ; and if the last appears 
more like the effusion of some modern refoirmer than an emanation from the 
mind of the author of Childe Harold, yet he should remember that it is not 
impossible for the spirit of "the noble lord" to have caught the "spirit of 
the age," and to be willing to write something in the vein even of the Corn 
Law Rhymer. But I need not enlarge upon the subjects or merit of these 
articles. They speak for themselves. They are presented to the public, 
not as perfect specimens in the art of composition, whether of prose or 
poetry — but as an addition to the ten thousand evidences that are contin- 
ually presented to persons who think, and those, also, who have not been 
accustomed to reason and investigate, that beings in another state of exist' 
ence are holding intercourse with the inhabitants of earth, As such the 
candid attention of the reader is asked for them. 

W. H.B. 

WlLBRAHAM, FeBBCAEY, 1856. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 



Should some modern antiquarian, not yet infected with 
the virus of virtue, see the collector doating on his coins, and 
hear him discoursing of their preciousness, I think he would 
be at a loss to account for an interest so deep about rusty 
copper and corroding silver, and an eloquence so profusely 
displayed upon antiquated coins, lost by thriftless housewives 
in ages gone by, that it seems to him in the nature of a new 
sense, or I should say, a new nonsense. He cannot fully 
comprehend an enthusiasm, which is apparently both hot 
and cold, weak and strong, for hoarding up those coins no 
longer current ; neither can he estimate a mode of valuation 
so glaringly inadequate as that which the antiquarian sets 
upon his mouldering penny ; nay, not even when he spends 
an intrusive hour in a Peter Funk auction room, and is then 
and there made cognizant, by the testimony of his own eyes 
and ears, of the startling price given for some gew-gaw, or 
denarius of more than common interest. He then compla- 
cently thanks his own good fortune and common sense that 
it has hitherto preserved him from the folly of walking forth 
a numismatic maniac. 

I would not choose an antiquarian ; for he would sack a 
a city, sift an empire's dust to find a copper ; then in ecstacy 
and delight hang o'er its letters eaten out by rust : 

And in his hand will turn it o'er and o'er, 

And stamp it with a name and date it never had before. 

7 



8 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

But still, in sober cheerfulness, there are many excuses to 
be urged in behalf of the coin enthusiast. He is neither a 
miser, who worships his money, merely for its own sake, nor 
is he a madman, who endows it with imaginary attributes. 
He is nothing of the mere speculator, who seeks his merce- 
nary gain by purchasing rare specimens at the common 
scheme price, then doubles on them when disposed of; nor 
the matter of fact trader in antiquity,'' whose first object is to 
lay out his capital very shrewdly, so that from the field of 
prostituted knowledge he may reap the rich harvest of vul- 
gar cash, or, what is, in a Yankee phrase, a pile of tin. Nor 
yet will he confess to the spirit of restless Curio, which re- 
joices in the selfish possession of a Pertinax ; and which 
would outbid your museums to secure some choice unique, 
with the sole view of reflecting on himself a sort of an ignis 
fatuus of learned notoriety. He is not to be dubbed a 
jealous snatch er, from old Father Time's mouth, of the 
morsels fit only for black oblivion ; and he would scorn to 
be accounted one of those greedy shareholders in the numis- 
matic lottery, who have in their eyes the goodness of a 
bargain rather than the educational ideas floating round 
antiquity itself; and who regard the accident of rarity 
rather than the quality of interest ; and who are scarcely 
gifted with that intelligence which is only capable of pricing 
a book, or watching for a fortunate investment in some 
express company. Now, these sutlers and lucre-led, or 
Millerite camp followers, encumbering the march of antiqua- 
rianism among the ruins of old Father Time ; all these, and 
all others who are of a similar character, the true numis- 
matist will disavow ; and, — with, a humble saving clause for 
his own human infirmity — will surely protest against any 
sympathy with their feelings, or participation in their 
motives. Far higher would he claim to be regarded : — as 
the meditative poet ; as the clear-sighted historian ; as the 
entertained connoisseur in art, and the well taught student in 
humanity. And, as Addison says, " The true collector does 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 9 

not look upon his cabinet of medals as a pile of gold, or 
filthy lucre, but a store-house of knowledge ; seeing he may 
rind as much thought on the inscription of a coin as in a 
canto of Spenser." 

Again, I say, the true collector is not the demented anti- 
quist of a wrathful Pinkerton; — the pseudo doctor, who 
would value mystery above knowledge; who prefers the 
obscurity of rust to a legible inscription, and justifies his 
ignorance of the present by doubting of the buried past ; but 
rather the good, the honest-hearted antiquary, — credulous, if 
you wish it so, as old Herodotus, but as brimful of his simple 
charity and uncompromising truthfulness; who seeks, by 
any means, to add the history of men and the countless ages 
that have passed away to a close and a fire-side sociability 
with modern men, times and manners. He looks upon his 
money as a golden monitor, teaching him many things. 
Delicately traced upon those small green fields, he can 
discern and read ten thousand poetical impersonations; 
within their magic circle he discovers the historic record ; 
and there he inspects the contemporary portraiture of mighty 
deeds, and those who dared them in those centuries long 
gone by. He can show to the artist and the sculptor of these 
days, the time-hallowed perfection of design, and grouping 
and microscopic modelling. He can take the architect aside, 
and exhibit to him triumphal arches, temples, fountains, 
aqueducts, amhpitheatres, circi, hippodromes, palaces, basili- 
cas, columns, obelisks, baths, sea-ports, pharoses, and many 
other glorious edifices, which have, ages ago, mouldered to 
dust, under the levelling hand of time. 

The towers of Thebes, 
Which millions toiled to rear, 
In scattered ruins, now own 
The earthquake's shock. 
Those mighty fleets of Rome, 
That filled the isles with fear 
The wild tern pest hath left 
In fragments on the rock : 



10 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

And the shadows whereof, thus only fixed forever on a coin, 
may help him in his structure of to-day, and teach him to 
venerate the builders of antiquity. 

He can, for his own high intellectual pleasure, make ac- 
quaintance with a world of miniature figures, minute, and 
many as the spirit forms in the midnight vision of America's 
seer,* shaped, each, and all, in elegance, and beauty ; figures 
or profiles of ideal deification, all the more interesting from 
having been copies of then existing works of Phidias, 
Appelles, Praxiteles, Parrhasias, or from some other Prome- 
thean quickner of the stucco, or the canvas, or Parian mar- 
ble; and he can, at sight, borrow from these little people of 
man's pocket, faultless conceptions of the excellent in form, 
and graceful ease in composition. He can amuse and also in- 
struct — nay, more, elevate his mind with ingenious allegories, 
deep myths of eternal truth, and the manifold embody ings of 
abstract attributes. For example, let him for one moment 
look upon the reverses of Roman large brass, there he will see 
Valor standing fully equipped and armed ; Honor robed and 
chapleted; Happiness crowned with obliviscent poppies; 
Concord with extended hand, and the horn of pienty in her 
bosom ; Hope tripping lightly, and smiling upon a rose-bud ; 
Peace offering the olive-branch ; Fortune resting on a rudder ; 
Military Faith stretching forth her consecrated standard : 
Abundance emptying her cornucopia; Security leaning on 
a column ; Modesty veiled and sitting ; Piety taking her gift 
to the altar ; Fruitfulness in the midst of her nurselings ; 
Equity adjusting her scales; Victory with wings, and coronal 
and trumpet : Eternity holding the globe, and risen Phoenix, 
or better, seated on a starry sphere ; Liberty with cap and 
staff; National Prosperity sailing like a noble ship before the 
tempestuous gale, and Public Faith, with joined hands, clasp- 
ing between them the palms of success, and the caduceus of 
health. 

* A. J. Davis. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 11 

Now, such as these, unillummed eyes might only deem fit 
for some old Praetorian to have therewith paid his hotel bill, 
or, at the very best, for some curious modern, to use as mark- 
ers at his game of whist ; but to the enlightened they are re- 
plete with classical interest, heraldic devise, geographical 
knowledge, evidences of early civilization, and curious objects, 
both of nature and of art. He finds them charged, on 
obverse or on reverse, with legends of heroic valor, with 
names and types of cities to their modern sites unknown ; 
with head-dresses, jewelry, highly- wrought arms, embroider- 
ed robes, and, above all, with exquisite delineations of human 
beauty. He perceives upon them, also, the likeness of strange 
animals, such as the giraffe, the crocodile, the Tyrian murex, 
and the cuttle-fish ; and those more fabulous abortions, such 
as a sphinx, or a minotaur, a Pegasus, a Phoenix, a Chime- 
ra. He may, guided by a Gnossian didrachmon, roam in 
these days, the labyrinth of Crete, and find it a maze, differ- 
ing only from that in the Harrow Koad, by being square in- 
stead of circular. Taught by a Cydonian obolus, he may 
also perceive that Kome, ever plagiarizing upon Greece, had 
stolen the idea of a wolf and-twins, from the young Miletus and 
his foster mother, Lupa ; and, warned by certain well-known 
tetra-drachms, bearing a crafty snake that emerges from a 
hamper, he may note therein a fitting proto-type for the han- 
aper office, and chancery litigation. But, far more to the 
purpose, for it tends to his deeper knowledge of mankind, he 
sees the medal pictured in all the glorious colors of faithful- 
ness with many ancient customs, such as sacrifices, triumphs, 
congiaries, homages, allocutions, decursions, lectisterniums, 
consecrations, and many other antiquated names, and ceremo- 
nies that we should not have had so just a notion of, were they 
not still in existence, on antiquated coins. 

So, from learning ancient manners, he may learn man, 
even down to this very day, and not less in the flattering 
titles showered upon tyrants and knaves; such as Nero, 
Domitian and Caracalla, who are sure to go forth, severally 



12 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

dubbed, Pius, Felix, Augustus and the Father of his country : 
or, in the lying epithets of war-like cowards, such as, Corn- 
modus and Caligula, who, unblushingly take the names of 
Dacian, German, or Britannic conqueror ; he may trace the 
black sycophancy of men, in all ages, to their worst and un- 
worthiest oppressors — nay, more, he may find immortal 
Greece, the Eoman's slave, fawning, in the depths of her 
misery and degradation on an emperor, as her god, and a 
god supreme ; or, on a senate, as the conclave of divinities. 
Far more than this, he can study the physiognomy, or, even 
more, the dubious phrenology of time honored magnates, 
leaders and liberators, and the giants of old Father Time, 
may speculate on their seeming dispositions, and compare the 
character which history has given them, with the liniments 
of their own acknowledged likeness, liniments so true to life 
and nature, that, saving only in the few and well-known in- 
stances of complimenting a new emperor, by his being in- 
vested in his predecessors features,* the stamped coin bears tes- 
timony alike to its own genuineness, and to the voice of history. 

But it should be considered, that, however stale and com- 
mon-place many of these consecrated virtues, or local genii, 
now may seem, to our long accustomed eyes, burdened as 
those mystic figures are with the ever frequent cornucopia, 
and other triter emblems, there was a time when such obvious 
thoughts as these were new, just born, unfledged — and that 
time for ought I know, may have been the coin's own birthday. 
With this idea in our minds, how many of the countries in this 
wide world are typified in a fine spirit, both of poetry and 
truth, on the splendid coin of ancient Greece and Eome ! 

It would not seem improbable, that the personification of 
nations upon coins was the same as that adopted in triumphal 
processions. There, in appropriate masquerade, mingled 
with the military pageantry, were borne on stages or plat- 



* For instance, the early Troians exhibit the head of a Nerva, as I have seen a coin of Henry 
the Eighth, masked with his father's face. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 13 

forms the figured representatives of the conqueror and the 
conquered. There, the Dacian lay bound, while the Eoman 
hj&ilt a trophy of his arms : there, sad Judea wept beneath 
her palm, and being desolate, sat upon the ground, while the 
Gentile sentinel stood guarding her, and also mocking ; while 
some dusky Ethiopian, drawn in a car by hugh elephants, 
leaning on tusks of ivory and holding out a scorpion, person, 
ated Africa. The crocodile, the sistrum and the ibis, testified 
to formal Egypt; Spain, too, had her strange and barbaric 
weapons — alas! the timid coney that creeps in her sier- 
ras ; Arabia, too, all laden with her spices, followed, with 
the camel at her feet ; Parthia, fidens fugae versisque sagittis* 
followed in the procession, with bow and quiver at her back ; 
Sicily, too, was chapleted with Cerealic wheat ; Achaia wore 
her coronet of parsley ; Britain leaned upon a rock, enthroned 
amid the seas ; Italy, too, the wonder of the world in beauty, 
was crowned like Cybele, with towers of strength ; she sat 
on the celestial sphere, and stretched forth the golden sceptre 
of her monarchy. 

But more than all this — for more may allure our fancy — for 
higher things than serve to tickle man's fancy, the sensible 
numismatist looks with satisfaction on his coins. In them he 
perceives the very germ of history ; pocket epitomes of inter- 
esting facts ; walking stilts across the muddy bottom ol Lethe. 
Within the years of a few continuous coins, he can, to day, 
read the record of otherwise unstoried empire, and, at once 
aid memory and prove historic truth, as he notes them nested 
away in his cabinet. It has been well stated, that the famous 
instance of the testimony given by ancient coins to history, 
in the matter of Thurium, and numerous others, in which is 
the corroboration of laconic statements ; nay, more, the fill- 
ing up of vague sketches, have been due to the preservation 
of these antiquated heroes, for telling ns the story of buried 
centuries. And examples, might, to day, be multiplied, at 
will. Perhaps we may in truth, say we know as much of the 

* Trusting to flight and the inverted arrows. 



14 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

worlds history to-day, and the Koman world in particular, 
from these antiquated coins as from living men, and more of 
their mighty deeds, to day, would have remained in oblivion, 
and all unknown to their posterity, bat for the numismatist, 
who is a witness to their lives and their actions. Oh ! how 
little, but for these little speechless fellows, could our students 
know about the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, Hadrian and 
Probus! Would they have estimated the high civilization of 
ancient Sicily, of Syracuse, of Heraclea, and, most of all, 
Agrigentum ? Oh ! how lightly would they have esteemed 
Eome's early struggles with the States of Magna Gre'cia, if 
they had not this testimony of coins to the refinement of 
Tarentum, and the unequalled elegance of Thurnium! But 
for these speechless fellows how little had they known, or 
knowing kept in their memories, the civilizing occupa- 
tion of Albion under Claudius, Hadrian and Geta, and 
Severus? "Where, I ask, could they have read at all, or 
in any case so well, of the beautiful and unhistoried Philis- 
tia, of the Ptolemaic and Antiochian kings, of the Sassamide, 
Arsacide, and other monarchs of the venerable east, and of 
the consular families of Western Eome ? May the sons of 
Columbia never forget, to the ends of time, but confess that 
they are indebted, for historic facts which have been brought 
to light, to the care and skill of the numismatist. 

But I speak of the earliest age, or, in other words, of our 
unstoried infancy.- Tascio and Segonax, and heroical Bon- 
duca, and the noble hearted Cymbeline, are found, I was 
going to say, exclusively from antiquated coins, and to have 
been far more than fabulous personages. And Ifars, Anlaf, 
and Sithric, primal kings of Ireland, are claimed from coins 
alone to be considered as realities. Why, just imagine for 
one moment, what a stability it would add to our belief in the 
existence of a king Lear, or the sturdy Brutus of that world, 
London or Troy, to see pieces of metal that were stamped 
with their images and superscriptions. With what corrobor- 
ated faith would we think of the chivalric Arthur, if we 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 15 

should find an obol charged obverse with his profile, and re- 
verse with the Bound Table ! And with what interest would 
the men of Bath gaze upon their Bladud, and on the fortu- 
nate thirsty swine that laid the foundations of his city ! 

And, to take a few only of those great men, who have 
confessed an interest, in what Addison does not scruple to 
style, the science of numismatics ; Pericles and Augustus are 
to be counted among its patrons, no less than Elizabeth and 
Leo ; and he who was yesterday the Napoleon of war, but 
to day the Napoleon of peace. Lorenzo and Petrarch take 
their rank among the army. Alfred, Bede, Alcuin, and the 
elder Bacon, are reported, on well substantiated grounds, to 
have been of the fraternity. There was Cromwell, too, fol- 
lowing the example of his martyred master, Selden, Camden, 
South, Clarendon, Evelyn, Wren, and a thousand of less note, 
knew the joys of the collector. But, in truth, from Reubens 
and Baffaelle, and from Chantrey and Canova, and Thor- 
waldsen, and from Newton and Mead, and Hunter, down to 
the veriest smatterer in science and art of this our day of 
education ; I think it may be probable that a few men of 
gigantic intellect may have escaped the influence of hankering 
after coins, if, at times, they were incautiously exposed to the 
attractions of a cabinet ; for it is verily, both pleasant and 
profitable to collect, possess, study and enjoy these small but 
imperishable records of the mighty past — pocket emblems, 
miniature temples, deciduous morsels, shed from Fame's true 
laurel, whose stem is iron, and whose leaves are bronze, 
whose buds are silver and whose expanded flowerets are 
gold, and the bloom or patina as the morning dew upon them 
all : to keep, I say, and have a property in these speechless 
little fellows, who are as lasting as the pyramids of Egypt? 
and these scoriae struck out on all sides, when the clanking 
chains and galling fetters of a mighty empire were forged — 
these glorious relics of primitive antiquity, more genuine than 
Helen's cross or Peter's chain — these sweet elixir drops of con- 
secrated durability, all congealed to adamant, and graven with 



16 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

the memorials of truth, eternal. Oh ! these ineffaceable trans- 
cripts of character, fact and feature — in number multiplied, 
and in authenticity undoubted — that to day may well defy 
the ravages of chance, change, suppression, or forgetful- 
ness ! 

The word coin is derived from xoivog common or current- 
and occurs on some Greek money, nominally of Alexan- 
der but really of the Eoman Emperor, Philip, a difficulty 
that has been well explained by men 01 great minds. There 
are coins which on the obverse, have the head of Alexander 
the Great, encircled with a diadem, together with the inscrip- 
tion AAEHANaPOY,* and on the reverse, a warrior on 
horseback, with the inscription KOINON MAKEAONflN,f 
Now if this were the whole account that the coins in question 
afford us of themselves, I should probably have to assign 
them to some period in the history of Macedon connected 
with that illustrious conqueror. I might, indeed, conceive 
that the coins of Alexander would extend themselves as far 
as his conquest ; and that, in the acknowledgment of his 
talents, and of their admiration, his successors would still re- 
tain his name and impress it upon this coin, long after he had 
died. And I find, too, upon a slight acaiquntance with nu- 
mismatic antiquities, that many cities of Greece and of Asia, 
did, in fact, adopt the badges chosen by him, for the coins of 
Macedon, and that they continued to be in use to an advan- 
ced period of the Eoman empire. But still, if the coins that 
I am now considering could give us no further tokens of 
their date, I should have assigned them to Macedon, without 
even fixing upon any precise time in Grecian history as the 
exact period they were coined. But I find, after the word 
MAKEaONUN, other letters, which convey a reference to 
Roman history of the time of the empire, and, underneath 
the figure of the horse, the three Greek numerals Eo£, which 
when translated, give the date 275. Now as I refer this date 

* Of Alexander. t Coin of the Macedonians. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 17 

back to the battle of Actium, the epoch which men common- 
ly adopted during the time of the empire, I am brought down 
to the year of Rome 998, all corresponding with the year, 245 
of the Christian era; the precise period at which Philip the 
the elder, who was then on the throne of the Caesars, was 
celebrating his recent victories in the East, and connecting 
them with the fame of Alexander the Great. To complete 
the proof of my assertion, there is a medal in the cabinet of 
London which has the same reverse in all its particulars of 
inscription, device and date, but bearing on the obverse, the 
titles of this person, viz. Philip, with the head of a Roman 
emperor. So you see that these coins, which, from most of 
their tokens, might at first sight have been assigned to a 
much earlier period, were coined for the use of Macedon, in 
the middle of the third century after Christ, in obedience to 
the mandate of the emperor Philip, and display some alleged 
connection between that emperor, and the ancient conqueror 
of the East. 

The word xoivov, not unfrequently occurs elsewhere, as 
for example, on the silver coin of Cyrene in Africa, bearing 
obversely the head of Jupiter Ammon, and with its charac- 
teristic sylphium on the reverse. Now this sylphium was a 
plant yielding a drug as much esteemed by the ancient 
Greeks, as opium is to day by the Chinese. It was in early 
ages called opopanax, or, in other words, heal-all, and so 
great was its price that Julius Caesar defrayed the expenses 
of the first civil war by selling 110 ounces of silphium, 
which he found stored in the public treasury. But after all 
this you may be astonished when I inform you that a drug so 
precious was nothing more nor less than assafetida. But 
enough of this. 

Some have preferred to xojvov the etymology of cuneus, 
a wedge or ingot, asserting that the earliest form of money, 
was the lump or mass. Now, whether cuneus be the root or 
not, the fact is undeniable, that mere crude metal was weigh- 
ed as money long before its foundation into coin. You 



18 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

remember that Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, four 
hundred shekels, current at that time with the merchants. 
Now the shekel was a weight, three thousand centuries before 
it was formed into coin, which was equal to a talent. Now 
the word current should be more properly understood by 
sterling, and as unalloyed, of right assay; and the word 
sterling is a corruption of Easterling, which was so termed 
from the money of Eastern Germany, which was of diamond 
pureness, and therefore in request, at that period, when our 
own coinage was excessively corrupt. You remember, too, 
how Brennus the Gaul flung his heavy sword into the scales 
that were too penuriously weighing the ransom of Rome. I 
need not multiply similar instances to prove my position. 

ISTow, unminted bullion, as a legalized tender of exchange, 
is not, I think, less a modern than it has been an ancient ex- 
pedient; for it has been revived in our times by men of 
superior intellect and capabilities, although the project was 
abortive and immediately dropped. Why, one brick of gold 
which weighed sixty ounces, was impressed with a sovereign 
stamp, which was made and issued for foreign commerce. 
To prove the correctness of my statement, a lead model ot 
this, covered with gold leaf, to resemble the original, is, to- 
day, to be seen in the British museum, and furnishes you a 
remarkable illustration of the manner in which the arts cir- 
culate; — the revolving wheel of time brings round its re- 
venges. 

The process from lumps of metal to the minted plan of 
coinage was gradual and natural ; for after the mere mass or 
weight, it would seem probable that the gold bracelet, the 
mancus, the torques, the fibula, or other decoration, of legiti- 
mate size and purity, succeeded. To take a familiar instance, 
— I find Le Balafre, m Quentin Durward, paying his bill 
with links untwisted from his gold neck-chain ; — and, in like 
manner, the bracelets of Judah and his staff, upon which the 
signet was commonly carried, were Tamar's hire ; — and the 
bushel of gold rings by which Carthage bought a truce with 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 19 

Kome were this sort of substitute for coin. The same 
kind of ornamental money — and the idea of combining 
money with ornament is to this day extant in the head- 
dresses of Yenetian sequins, and in the circlets of old coins 
worn every day in the East — has been excavated by the 

Duke of from beneath the upright stones at In- 

verary. 

Now, with regard to the iron rings mentioned by Caesar ; 
it is very strange, even remarkable, that nothing of the kind 
was ever known to have been discovered with British coins 
in England, — while in Ireland, the land of the Shamrock, 
rings of gold and brass have been excavated from the 
earth, in great numbers. Why, there was found, a few 
years since, in a tumulus in Monaghan, enough to load a one- 
horse wagon. Now, does not this fact prove that, although 
these rings may occasionally have been applied to the pur- 
poses of money, they were originally intended for fibula?, or 
some other personal ornaments ? But I must confess that, 
at first sight, the fact of finding a wagon load of these rings, 
seems to me to prove the reverse, viz : that it was rather a 
hoard of cash than an accumulation of ornaments. Yet I do 
not think it impossible, that over the dead body of that illus- 
trious conqueror, his followers may have flung their bracelets 
in his honor. But more than this, when I recollect that the 
Egyptian hiereoglyphic for money is nothing but a ring, I 
think it much less likely that a tribe should impoverish 
itself than that their chief should hoard up his treasures. 

But, to pass on, precious metal — and this word is more 
likely to be the root of medal than the Arabic methalia, 
head — was soon found to require some genuine guarantee for 
its purity, as well as the more easily discoverable fact of its 
just weight; and, in that day, when seals were sacred things, 
no test was so obvious as the signet, heraldic emblems, or, in 
words, allegorical devices ; and, to save an anachronism in 
terms, would, I think, appear to be the first idea — -such as 
the Babylonish lion, Egina's tortoise, Bceotia's shield, the lyre 



20 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

of Mytilene, and, also, the wheat of Metapontum. But it, I 
think, would soon seem advisable to add the sanction of 
religion to that of mere honor ; and this, too, I am of opinion, 
will, at first sight, account for the common impress of the 
head of some divinity. Therefore, such as Juno, Diana, 
Ceres, Jove, Hercules, Apollo, Bacchus, Pluto, Neptune, and 
a host of others of the Pantheon, have sanctioned, by their 
effigies impressed, the most perfect means of barter known to 
the world. Also, superstition dared not cheat, in the face of 
Rhodes' brilliant Phoebus, or of the stern Athenian Minerva, 
or of the mighty Jupiter of Macedon. 

It is a fact that the coins of those days were prototypes ; 
and the original model of these splendid heads was, in each 
individual case, some statuary idol, which was held sacred 
and venerable, for alleged miracles, such as the Lady of 
Loretto, or, for any indefinite antiquity, such as St. Peter. 
It will seem clear to any clear-seeing mind, that it was owing 
to these exhibitions of idolatry on coins that the Jewish 
shekel never bore the impress of a head ; but, on the con- 
trary, was charged only with an almond rod and a pot of 
manna, for Israel, — a fact ascertained by the inscription upon 
her banners ; and they were innocently allowed to bear upon 
them a heraldic emblem, but were entirely forbidden to 
make, shape, or fashion any device which heathen nations 
worshipped. And Mohammedan money, in like manner, 
and for similar reason, was, and is to day, prohibited by the 
Koran from exhibiting any portraiture. 

But there is another fact which I wish to insert here, viz: 
that until Alexander of Macedon had overrun the Persian 
monarchy in the East ; furthermore, until Julius Caesar had 
consummated the Roman, empire in the West, not a single 
image of any living man was ever permitted to be stamped 
upon the coin then in use. Then nothing but such as 
deities or heroes could even presume to give a sanction to the 
national credit. 

And besides the usual metals, gold, silver, copper, many, 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 21 

very many and strange substitutes were often adopted as 
means of legal tender. And it is a fact, that money made of 
leather and of sea-shells was once used by the ancient 
Komans ; and also, that wood was used for the same purpose ; 
and, furthermore, leather money was once the common 
tender at Carthage, and, also, in Sparta ; — but with respect to 
these cases, I will say that there is to-day no such money 
known to exist. And iron was also used in the same manner 
at Sparta, Clazomene, Byzantium, and, also, at Home. Fur- 
thermore, tin was used by Dionysius, of Syracuse. But no 
ancient specimen of these metals has ever been discovered ; 
yet it is a fact that such coins have actually existed. And I 
account for the total disappearance to the extreme remote- 
ness of the time when they were made, and that they have 
long since been decomposed. But, perhaps, dear reader, you 
may not fully agree with me in the above, and in particular, 
are in apparent incredulity, as some are with respect to 
Suidas & Co. For there is to be added with a certainty to 
this list quite a number of well known and similar substi- 
tutes. For example, species of coal-money, and even circular 
bits of horse hide have not been unfrequent in the British 
barrows. And the Dutch have minted pasteboard ; and the old 
English exchequer tallies might, I think, be called, in some 
sort or other, wooden money, merely from their common- 
ality. There was James the Second, who coined gun-metal. 
And in the year 1690, the English had a tin coinage to the 
amount of about 71,000 pounds; also, lead and pewter were 
circulated largely as money, and went by the name of trades- 
men's tokens. Also, the Malays had, and to this day have, a 
legal tender of betel-nuts; also, the island of Madagascar 
people had, for legal tender, almonds; also the most eastern 
African tribes had, for legal tender, cow-ry shells ; also, the 
inhabitants of Yucatan, seeds of plants ; and the original set- 
tlers of America had, for legal tender, musket-balls. Even 
in one of your cities, (Cincinnati,) no farther back than 1803, 
deer skins at the market value of forty cents per pound were 



22 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

legalised means of barter, and, if offered, instead of money, 
would not have been refused. Why, only think of it! 
paper, flimsy as a spider's web, and far more liable than any 
Sibylline leaves, to be destroyed by water, wind and fire, 
and, also, exposed to its utter demolition by mere contact 
with its more stern brother, Mr. Cash, and also, to illegibility 
from mere oil, grease and dirt, — and this, I say, without the 
fear of contradiction from any one, is the very type of inse- 
curity, and, possibly, of immateriality, — is your chief circu- 
lating medium, and represents your highest sums. 

But, to return, coins were first stamped on one side only ; 
and the reverse of the earliest Greek money, being the im- 
press of points on which the stricken plan was fixed ; and 
that of ancient British money ; and, also, some from Hindos- 
tan, but of indefinite antiquity, only being the indentation of 
a smoothly polished concavity. And the metal was lead red 
hot from the furnace — something like the English skeattas — 
shot money, which were so called from their form before stri- 
king ; and this money, when it was stamped, was very often, 
and that naturally, serrated from the radiation caused by 
blows. This effect gave the first idea ior the modern safe- 
guard against clipping — milled edge. The only piece of 
simple mechanism used for this kind of minting was a ham- 
mer, an anvil, and a pair of pincers ; as I find them portrayed 
on an interesting consular coin, with the inscription, Moneta. 

Now, I would say, concerning the dies, that there is no- 
thing, I think, more truly wonderful in the whole range of 
ancient coins than their infinite variety. And I will insert 
here another fact, which to you may be a matter of great as- 
tonishment, that with their imperfect mastery over metals, a 
great number of the ancients should still have recourse to the 
uncouth pincers and hammer for all common purposes ; as 
they would be compelled, from the true want of a well-tem- 
pered material, to be constantly making new dies, after a very 
small number of impressions had been taken. But this diffi- 
culty only furnishes you with a more conclusive evidence in 



ANTrQUltY OF COINS. 23 

favor of what lias been stated as regards the general practice. 
It is a curious fact that in a very few instances have any two 
coins of an ancient date been found which had the evidences 
of having proceeded from the same die. But I am to-day in- 
formed that the Prince Torre Muzza, who was for many years 
a collector of Sicilian medals, could not in his vast cabinet 
find any two that corresponded, in all particulars, with each 
other. Now, does it seem possible that these dies, so beauti- 
ful and exquisite in workmanship, which had been carved, for 
the greater ease, in a certain sort of clay, or other plastic com- 
position which, when hardened by heat, would thus be made 
capable of striking one impression on the drop of metals still 
softened from the furnace, should have been so perishable ? 

The ancients did not have any steel, but their coins were, 
in truth, numberless, and also the dies. For striking, not 
casting, was their method ; and I can only wonder that the 
ponderous hammer had attached to its face the quasi mouldy 
the highly tempered but tender, or, in other words, fragile 
dies, which, like the bees of Virgil, must perish as they 
strike : 

Animasque in vulnere pommt.* 

And even with all the skill of more modern date, and its 
many mechanical appliances, and the longevity of dies, and 
steel of treble temper though they may be, I think the result 
is always problematical, for this reason, that one day they 
may be capable of striking off ten thousand coins without any 
material deterioration ; while, on another day, they may give 
way beneath half that number ; and for this reason, too, that 
steel dies are very liable to break from the variations of tem- 
per by over healing, or from the degrees of force in striking, 
or from chemical deficiencies in the original process of face- 
hardening, and from various other causes which are to-day 
even very little understood. 

* They leave their lives in the wound 



24 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

Now, leaving thus but slightly touched this mysterious to- 
pic of an ancient die, upon which, in truth, no light has been 
thrown, even by the discovery of moulds for casting, which, 
in my opinion, were certainly the tools of Gaulish forgers, let 
us go on and excavate a little farther the history of these little 
pocket fellows-coins. There is another fact which I wish to 
insert here, that is this, that, notwithstanding high civiliza- 
tion, there existed no money in Egypt anterior to the Persian 
occupancy ; for cash did not enter into the calculations of a 
Pharaoh, and there is nothing like a coin to be found upon 
sculptures or papyri ; for Joseph's money for the corn was no 
uther than personal ornaments, although there may be an 
abundance of circular seals, or, in other words, cartouches, 
stamped upon burnt clay. And the earliest coins known to 
be in existence, at the very best, are those which have the in- 
dented square, or such as the monkeys of Egina ; for to this 
soon succeeded the simple incussion, such as the wheat-ear oi 
Metapontum and the bull's head of Phocis. And this kind 
of incussed coin followed very close upon the indented, for 
this very reason, that instead of being fixed upon points, the 
idea soon followed of fixing the metal on some slightly yield- 
ing surface, such, for instance, as lead or wood, so as to pro- 
duce a reverse intaglio of the obverse cameo. Then came in- 
cussed coins of two separate impressions, such as the Neptune 
of Posidonia, with his drapery folded both back and front, 
showing the evidence of the obverse and the reverse. Next 
came the double stamp, or, in other words, the proper tail- 
piece, which was added to the profile, and sometimes within 
squares, such as I find on Doric and early Athenian money. 
Now, you may, perhaps, have observed that these words, viz : 
coins and medals — have heretofore been used indiscriminately, 
as if it were not meant or intended to acknowledge that any 
important distinction ever existed between them. Now, this 
distinction, as regards a point of fact, has never been gene- 
rally and truly observed ; and the neglect of this was owing 
to the impossibility of separating the specimens, which were, 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 25 

at those times, intended to be legal tender from those speci- 
mens, which were designed for other purposes. And there 
are some of them of so large a size, and so very peculiar in 
other respects, that they cannot very well be confounded with 
common money. And for these, some have reserved the 
term medallion, meaning, however, to use the term medal, as 
denoting all coined pieces of whatsoever stamp ; and also 
coins, to distinguish those which were designed as legal ten- 
der. Now, this was an opinion of Hardouin, and also, before 
him, of Erizzo. And it was, also, their opinion, that none 
of the various specimens now in existence were issued as mo- 
ney, but bestowed as memorials and tokens. But these opi- 
nions have no claim to be refuted. 

Some have endeavored to ascertain what medals are tokens 
and memorials, by examining whether they possess the well- 
known characteristics of coins. Now these characteristics 
may be briefly stated by the following : — wherever there is a 
class of specimens that preserves the same specific character, 
although they may have been minted in different years, or 
reigns, or different centuries ; and wherever they present a 
uniformity of weight or device, or are in the general style of 
workmanship, allowing only for those changes which oc- 
cur by the varying condition of the arts; and wherever they 
have been found in immense numbers ; and wherever they 
bear, either in their inscriptions or name the denoted value of 
a coin, some have inferred that they were issued as common 
money or legal tender. And there exist to-day coins of gold 
and silver of the days of Philip and Alexander, which still 
preserve a strict correspondence with each other, being speci- 
mens, (so Dr. 0. says,) of the money mentioned by the an- 
cient authors, under the names of those illustrious sovereigns. 
There exist, also, coins of Athenian tetradrachms, varying 
somewhat in their actual weight, but still maintaining a con- 
stant resemblance to each other, and which extended from the 
earliest times down to the Christian era. Now, the fact seems 
to be, from all the information I can gather, that the distinc- 



26 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

tion between a coin and a medal is very much like one of 
more modern invention. For Addison, speaking of an an- 
cient mintage, says that he cannot recognise any difference 
between them. And Mr. P. K. is also of the opinion, that in 
the case of a medallion, from Csesar's gift of grace to his fa- 
vorite, to the beautiful Sicilian prize for the athlete, it had its 
legal value, and is to be accounted as a coin. There would 
seem, in these cases, to be a speciality of die ; and if the very 
fact of a legalised currency is not recorded as to medallions, 
either on their face or tail, as I have no knowledge to the 
contrary, no matter how clumsy the mechanical contrivances 
or mechanism of the ancients, their progressive design, in 
the artistic execution of the die, was astonishingly rapid. 

Now, in the types of some of the more ancient Greek coins, 
I discover a spirit and a boldness, both in design and execu- 
tion, with which many of the more elaborate productions of 
more modern times will not bear comparison. The rude and 
often misshapen lump of silver upon which these types are 
impressed, contrast most singularly with the wonderful free- 
dom and spirit of the design. Armor, animals, weapons, 
plants, utensils, and also the most graceful representations of 
the human head, appear in infinite numbers, so that the ar- 
tists of antiquity would seem to have sometimes vied with 
each other, as regards the most striking representations with- 
in the smallest and even possible means. So says Dr. C, 
of . 

But of the more ancient annals of forgery, to-day I have 
no knowledge ; but as far back as 583 before Christ, I find 
Solon issuing laws of a very sanguine nature against the crime 
of forgery. Why, under Claudius, proud Eome found her- 
self almost in a state of inundation with legalised false coins, 
and a regular issue of denarii, formed of silver plating over 
an iron foundation ; and when the people wished to stop its 
circulation as genuine money, they cut the edges with a three 
square file. And there were issued, also, serrated coins of a 
similar spurious mintage. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 27 

If I were to detail at length tlie progress of coinage it would 
be rather tedious for you, dear reader. Now, silver had taken 
the precedence, and seems to have been in a state of the ut- 
most purity at Athens. For she had no gold coins of her own 
make, but she contented herself with the Cyzicenes and the 
Dorics of her neighbor cities ; and she governed the money 
market of the old world by the standard of her own just and 
pure currency. Then copper followed, at a very early period, 
and almost simultaneously, to answer the demand for a sub- 
division ; although Athens did issue silver coin which weighed 
only two grains. And gold, in a race almost equal, was the 
last — all of them being c£ a very pure standard, far exceed- 
ing the coin of to-day in purity, and of other times and coun- 
tries among the ancients. The Darics of Persia appear to 
have contained one twenty-fourth part of alloy, and the gold 
coins of Philip and of Alexander reached a much higher de- 
gree of fineness and purity ; and in the gold coin of Vespa- 
sian, the alloy was only in the ratio of 1 to 788, while in the 
gold coin of to-day the alloy consists of one part in twelve. 

The very earliest money that I have knowledge of was im- 
pressed with the figure of a bull, or, in other words, a kind 
of pecus ; and in India the earliest coins were stamped with 
the figures of an ox or a sheep. Now, there was Jacob, who 
bought a field for one hundred pieces of money. You will 
find the correctness of this statement in the 33d chapter, 1 9th 
verse, of Genesis. Now, the original Hebrew term, pieces of 
money, is kesitoth, which signifies lambs, with the figure of 
which the metal was stamped. There was a strange incredu- 
lity in the mind of Dr. C, of , respecting this primitive 

kind of tender, whereof I am informed that Pliny, N. H., 33, 
3, says the following : — Signatum est notis pecudum, unde 
pecunia appelata.* Now, since my good friend, the doctor, 
has got over the household word pecunia, which is a Latin 

* It was distinguished by figures of cattle (pecudum,) hence called pecunia (money.) 



2£ ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

word, I cannot expect him to be staggered and overwhelmed 
with a genuine proverb in relation to Greece, where he says, 
that in none of these specimens, nor in any known coin of 
immortal Athens ever discovered, is to be found the impress 
of a bull, which was said by Plutarch to have been the device 
adopted by the Athenians in the days of Theseus, and which 
was very commonly thought to have given the occasion of the 
proverb, (3ovs itfiy\u<f<fy)*. Now, there is to-day, in the Bri- 
tish Museum, so I am informed, an original specimen of a 
Roman coin, with the figure of a bull impressed upon it, and 
perceptible to the sight ; and this coin, in surface, is very near 
the dimensions of your brick. Further, I know that the in- 
terchange of arms between Diomed and Grlaucus, and the true 
valuation of haro^ol twsaftoi wvfare not likely, in my opinion, 
to be at once admitted against my good friend, the doctor. 
But I must say that there are a number of points to be taken 
into consideration before I can adopt his conclusions. The- 
seus, I am to-day informed, did stamp upon coins of his day 
the figure of bulls. And, too, the Trojan war was undertaken 
when Mnestheus, who was the successor to Theseus, reigned 
in Athens, when these bull-figured coins were in circulation. 
Now, as regards the explanation that the armor did actually 
cost one hundred and nine bulls — creatures with hoofs and 
horns — it seems to me that it would be as reasonable for me 
to say it of one hundred sovereigns, or nine rose-nobles. Why, 
it was a similar confusion of mere ideas which gave force to 
the pleasantry of Agesilaus, who, when he was driven from 
an invasion of Asia by the power of Persian gold, (the known 
Darics which had bribed Sparta,) declared that it was no won- 
der that he was defeated ; for, only think of it ! — he fought 
against thirty thousand archers. Therefore, it appears to me 
very evident that these bulls that bought those Homeric arms 
were silver bulls. And furthermore, I am to-day informed 



* The noisy klne. t One hundred °nd nine bulls. 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 29 

that the only and true explanation of their not being in ex- 
istence, or, in other words, being non-extant, is that the 
bull was so large and very coarse that it did not escape 
the crucible. Again, there are in Athens a considerable 
number of coins which are of a very early period ; for the 
workmanship is rough in the extreme, and the reverse 
possesses the squares or cross of the most plain and simple 
style of coinage, and the device is not the common owl or the 
head of Pallas, but of a horse. Now in this horse is to be 
found the very identical f3oUs I seek. 

Koman coins were generally divided into consular series, 
or those which were struck by Eoman magistrates, and com- 
memorative of their own particular family legends, and those 
imperial series which were struck by emperors, in gold and 
silver, and also by the senate, in copper and brass, to the ho- 
nor of Rome's prosperity, and her favorite Augustus of an 
hour. Now, to this rough and uncouth classification I will 
also add the dozen subdivisions of the As, the little company 
of gold medallions, and sundry pocket fellows or tokens, 
which served as tickets of admission to the publie baths and 
the amphitheatre. Now it has been supposed by some minds 
that these tesserae, although not originally so intended, were 
afterwards used as money ; and the countermarks, which were 
in many instances found upon coins of ancient date, both gold 
and silver, and brass, were to be the public stamps by which 
they were to be acknowledged as genuine currency. 

Now, in the consular series there are many points of pecu- 
liar interest ; and one of the most noticeable is the adoption 
of the head of the Athenian Minerva, serving to show either 
that Athenian money had gained such mundane, credit for 
its purity, that Eome took it for her model, or that Grecian 
artists worked the Roman mint, and with a religious patriot- 
ism did preserve the sanction of their national divinity. Both, 
[ think, were antecedently to be expected. And these con- 
sular series abound with corroborations of Livy's tales and 
other legendary stories of ancient days, as well as present to 



30 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

you numerous traditionary portraits of the very earliest wor- 
thies and heroes of primeval Eome. 

No likeness of any living man was ever allowed to be im- 
pressed upon them ; and the coins of the empire commenced 
with Julius Caesar, who was the first man that struck a liv- 
ing portrait or figure, and this he did with his own hands. 
And from him they ran in a continued succession of so-called 
Caesars, of their queens and their crown princes, from the 
year 48 A. C, down to Komulus Augustulus, who was an em- 
peror of the west, and who was dethroned by Odoacer, in the 
year 475, A. D. This was their chief excellence — it was all 
portraiture. But during the earliest period, and also the next, 
'as I have said, are nothing but poetical impersonations and 
historical incidents. And in later times of the empire, for 
example the last 250 years, the execution was generally as 
barbarous as the design was unclassical. 

Those tickets, which are called contorniati, were named 
from the hollow circle or frame which was round their edge, 
were of a very low relief, such as belong to the lower empire, 
and bore on one side some personage of ancient fame, and on 
the other some mythological device, and were then used as 
tesserae. And while the spinthiriati, or, in other words, bath- 
tickets, are impressed with scenes and subjects of bacchanal- 
x an feasts and debauchery, only fit for the gardens of a Nero 
or the Caprea of Tiberius, there are coins and medals very 
interesting, and worthy of a place in. this brief sketch, as they 
allude to Christianity and its corruption in a very early age. 
For example, there were coins of Hebrew make, which bore 
the figure of Christ, which were of large size ; and also coins 
of Dioclesian and Maximilian, illustrative of their triumphs 
over that monster serpent, which was shaped like Milton's 
sin — nothing but a human form with his snakeship's legs. 
Therefore, the absurdity of gnosticism had dared to symbol- 
ize the Christian mystery of two natures in one person — hu- 
man and divine. Such, too, were the coins of the days of 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 31 

Constantine, Constantius, Jovian, Gratian, Decentius, and 
Theodosius ; and on all of these were to be seen that interes- 
ting emblem, the X and P* monogram of Jesus, with his A 
and wf in the field, which succeeded to the heathen symbols 
on the Labarum and coins of the more barbaric empire, with- 
out mentioning the money of Phocas, Justinian, and others, 
who placed the cross of Christ upon their coins, from which 
it was copied by Saxon kings, and by a breakage in the cru- 
cial indentations, which afterwards produced the half-penny 
and four-thing. 

If time permitted, I should like to extend more largely my 
remarks upon the devices of forgery ; but, as time will not 
permit, I shall be brief on that point. Whatever skill and 
knowledge may have been brought to bear and employed in 
forging, the same degree of skill, and a far greater degree of 
knowledge were employed in detecting. The very knowledge 
of these difficulties pre-supposes the power of disentangling 
them. The skill and ingenuity of fraud have been followed, 
step by step, through all their various windings ; and, where- 
ever they have given birth to new devices, have readily sug- 
gested some new caution or a contrivance for exposing them. 
Even when all the arts of fraud had been exhausted, mechan- 
ism has been assisted by learning the business of delusion. 
But there still remains on the other side that eye which was 
once keen and cautious / that seems to have converted a long 
experience into a quick perception. For an illustration : as 
a thorough musician can tell when his favorite violin is out 
of tune by those tokens which are imperceptible to the organs 
of an unskillful musician, so, too, it is with the antiquarian of 
native talent, grown prudent from long accustomed use, and 
also enlightened by various means of knowledge. He has ac- 
quired for his pursuits a strong power of intuition which no 
fraud can elude, and ignorance cannot fully and truly com- 
prehend. 



* Greek Characters Cb. & E. t Alpha and Omega. 



32 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

As there is a series of mania, I think there is one more 
which may be added to the list — the coin mania ; and one 
more to the list of maniacs — the coin maniac. But I shall 
mention only two instances in this place. There is a gold 
coin of the stamp of Mithridates, which, in its intrinsic worth, 
weighs ten shillings, but which, in the year 1777, fetched 
£26 5s., and in forty years it reached the value of £80 ; and 
at that value came into the possession of a certain insignifi- 
cant collector : and the acquirer of this unique Mithridates 
had hardly made the purchase before a duplicate was brought 
into the market, and he thought it was for his interest to 
purchase this also ; and such was the strife of competition 
that the coin was brought up to the value of £90, and he 
purchased again. After a lapse of time, a third was brought 
into the market, and brought up by this insignificant collec- 
tor to the value of £100. And I once saw a duplicate of 
the same coin sold at the same place for £113; and, at the 
same time and place, this insignificant collector was present, 
and, having bid up as high as £110 and lost, he gave over 
in despair. Human nature did its utmost, but could stand 
the siege no longer. And a medallion made of brass, of the 
stamp of Commodus, fetched the sum of £23, being, as re- 
gards its intrinsic weight, worth only two pence. And a 
famous athlete medallion of Syracuse, worth five shillings, 
has, time and again, brought £40. 

But, after all, let not the collector who reads these things 
leap into the gulf of despair ; as in all other cases, and good 
things of nature and art, I find fhe union of medium ex- 
cellence with high rarity to be the exception and not the 
rule, so it is with regard to coins. Fair and very good look- 
ing specimens of genuine Greek money are readily procured 
for a trifle more than their actual value as silver ; and con- 
sequently, the difference which constitutes scarcity and high 
price will be found to amount to some trifle ; yea, trivial as 
a mint mark, or some other unimportant variation from the 
recognised standard — coins, for instance, that have been pub- 



ANTIQUITY OP COINS. 33 

lished and described. To this remark there are, of course, 
brilliant exceptions. An ancient piece, be it proud gold 
stater, or humble copper chalcus, and perfect in form and con- 
dition, with the bloom of its birth still sweet and rose-like 
upon its shining face, or as the dew of morning upon the un- 
folding rose, will ever command a high appreciation ; even 
though the type shall be old and common. And fine speci- 
mens from Syracuse, Thurium, and Panormus, always bear a 
value which will only seem nonsensical and absurd in the 
eyes of the illiterate collector. 

But facts are, indeed, stubborn things, and the fact to-day 
remains that one may, at a very small expense, obtain speci- 
mens of Greek coinage, in a fair condition as coins ; and not 
only this, but desirable for art or for interest. For example, 
such as Alexander, the Boeotic Shield, the Attic owl, and 
the Bhodian pomegranate flower ; also, the Pegasus of Cor- 
inth ; and more — if the collector will only eschew these 
minuter and differential marks, for which but a few, save en- 
thusiasts, will contend he can buy very cheap in a numis- 
matic auction-room, a very feast of reason and flow of spirit. 
Then he may have the crab from Agrigentum ; the turtle 
from Egina ; the dolphin from Tarentum ; the wild boar 
from Aetolia; the drinking cups from Cyrene; corn from 
Metapontum ; the unfolding rose from Zacynthus ; and 
Chalcis with her sounding lyre to harmonize this glorious 
feast. Kome, too, will furnish abundance of interest, both 
historic and poetical; good coins, as well consular as impe- 
rial, can be bought for two English shillings a piece ; and 
even Othos, too, are very cheap, yea, cheap as silver ; and 
when possessed of these, there will be very little wisdom in 
sighing for an Otho made of corroding brass. And that col- 
lector who has a wish to frame his cabinet on an economical 
plan, and a basis of sound common sense — and with this true 
taste can never be at variance — will supply himself with the 
portrait or the incident, upon brass, if silver be too expen- 
sive, or on silver if brass is not to be obtained. But what- 



34 ANTIQUITY OF COINSi 

ever the metal is, the historical ideas must, in all cases, be 
the same; and a Claudius Gothicus will have no deeper in- 
terest for his eye, minted in the rarest bullion, than in the 
frequent copper. A contrary feeling, and one too, rife among 
the numismatic world, tends to scarcity — though it be but of 
mere metal — to the first rank in costliness ; and there often 
is a conflict for rare brass where the gold and silver are too 
common to be prized. But this kind of valuation by rarity 
alone, exclusive of all interest and workmanship, does some- 
times lead the connoisseur astray, and he is convinced too 
late that coins, no matter how scarce, may be bought too 
dearly, if they have nothing else to recommend them to his 
cabinet. Why, the pax-penny of William the Conqueror, 
one of the most uncouth and barbaric bits of money that ever 
was in existence, some years ago, was of the very first rarity, 
and bore a value nearly equivalent to its weight in diamond 
carats. But, lo, and behold ! a hoard, ten thousand in num- 
ber, of some old Norman miser is lucky enough to unearth 
at the town of Beaworth ; and, to the intense disappointment 
and chagrin of competitors for scarcity, these pax-pennies 
were sold for the sum of sixpence a piece. And early Saxon 
coins, within a few years past, were esteemed invaluable; 
from the fact that they bore the names of Ethelbert, Alfred 
and Edward of East Anglia ; and their interest in the Eng- 
lish mind is not attempted to be gainsaid ; nor will that un- 
couth and uncivilized character of their execution be dis- 
puted, nor the fact that the patriotic interest aforesaid was 
estimated at a much too high price. But for those who had 
possessed themselves of Saxon pence at the value of fourteen 
pounds a piece, now the bank of Coverdale overwhelmed 
these units by its hundreds, 

With sharpened sight the ghastly antiquarians pore 
The inscription they value, but rust adore. 
'Tis the blue varnish that the green endears, — 
The sacred rust of two thousand yeara 



ANTIQUITY OF COIN'S. 35 

I shall not dwell upon the beauty of coins, though in 
truth, the coins of Naples have a charming tint ; and plea- 
sant is the gloss of Malta coins ! The brasses of the ancients 
contain, for the most part, a quantity of tin united with the 
native copper. As the mines which were worked by them 
did not give them these two metals in combination, I infer 
that tin was made use of by design, from their knowing the 
unfitness of copper itself for the purposes of money. But 
the advantage, however, of the combination is shown more 
clearly in reference to numismatic studies. The disinter, a 
Eoman brass, contained but very little admixture of other 
metal with its native copper ; but if the alloy have been 
properly united with it, the specimen has become much more 
attractive, during its concealment, by that soft shadowing of 
green and brown which has spread itself over it, oiovrofr 
dxpaioig h\ apa,* and which, more than any other property, 
baffles the ingenuity of more modern forgers. Now this, I 
think, will satisfy the utilitarian of to-day. 

Now, in conclusion, I would say that there is one other 
view of ancient coins, at which I must be so impudent as to 
ask the kind reader to take a parting glance, viz. : their 
localities. It may be a stranger idea to you to hear of 
Eoman gold having been excavated from the mouldering 
ruins of a Hindoo temple, than of hoards of imperial coin 
found in Transylvania ; but they are facts. For Lieut. C. of 
discovered in Cashmir an entirely unknown coin, fif- 
teen centuries in duration, of Indo-Scythian kings; who, 
until the soldiers disinterred their monetary effigies, had been 
utterly unknown. So in Bactria and AfTghanistan, many an 

old potentate has to thank Col. T. of and Lieut. M. 

of , for having rescued their fame from non-entity 

through the medium of coins. 

But I will not dwell upon these grand and remote dis- 



* As the season of the blooming flowers. 



86 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

coveries ; for I myself was once frightened half out of my 
skin, by picking up a Roman coin, in one of my morning 

rambles, no farther off than in S . 0, what charms it 

gave to the familiar scene ! What interest it added to the 
purple uniformity of the broad heath; and how the air 
began to sound with the clangors of lituus and tuba ! How 
the hollow rocks were thronged with bivouacking legion- 
aries ! There were the horses with their shaggy manes, 
drinking at the running brook; there stood the banners 
circling the pretorium ; there were Rome's bloody hands ; 
and her wolf and twins; and her consecrated labarum. This 
fine white sand has rubbed bright many a breast-plate that 
-was afterward dyed in the crimson gore of the slain. The 
fragrant sod has been drenched with the hot smoking blood 
of the invaders, hewing out through slaughtered millions the 
glory of Rome. Here's the hill where the gray haired sire 
fought for his home and liberty. From these hills, rushed, 
unawares, that mighty cloud of swarthy Britons ; but 
Rome's iron-ribbed cohorts were ready at a word. But, ah ! 
the rout is over. Those hostile legions have returned ; — 
and now they pile up the heaps of the wounded and dying. 
Then I hear the groans of the wounded ; the snort of the 
war-horse ; the heavy tramp of the battalion. I see the 
running streams of crimson blood; the deadly grasp of the 
youthful soldier. But, look ! — all is still. Countless thous- 
ands have fought their last battle, and their vigorous spirits 
have winged their flight to the field of eternity, 

I now leave the battle-field and wander to other scenes — 
to where the earthquake has shaken the foundations of 
mighty empires. The remains of temples, palaces, and 
towers, fringed with fire, still totter over the fatal spot. But 
still, amid these ghastly ruins, where every thing portends 
disaster, many an edifice has been reared ; where beating 
hearts are now gay over the graves of their fathers. And 
the earth itself is but one mighty sepulchre ; and every thing 
that animates the eye, or regales the taste, springs from cor- 



ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 87 

ruption. And the very breeze, that to-day is music on your 
ear, has been loaded with the groans of countless thousands. 
And though you should sink in the ingulfing shock of the 
earthquake — in the burning flood of lava from the volcano, 
you must remember that thousands will live and smile amid 
the mouldering monuments of your ruin. For the songs and 
the sounds of merriment have gone up for ages over the 
tombs of Herculaneum. 

But the veil of buried centuries has been rent asunder, and 
the embalmed remains of Herculaneum and Pompeii have 
been brought up from their long mysterious repose, to the 
gazing eye of man. 

I wander, also, among the hills of immortal Greece ; gaze 
at the bright isles of the Egean ; lift up the eye to the low- 
ering dome of St. Sophia ; walk in the deep shadows of the 
Coliseum ; see Yenice emerging in splendor from the wave ; 
Etna belching forth its seas of fire and smoke ; stroll along 
the banks of the Nile, and survey the gigantic pyramids of 
mouldered Egypt ; gaze through the long and gay saloons of 
Parisian pride ; and make a pilgrimage to the seven hills of 
proud Kome. I see the ocean roused in its wrath; the 
world's navies of oak and iron tossed in mockery from its 
crest ; armaments, manned by the combined strength and 
courage of millions, perish among its bubbles. The ava- 
lanche, shaken from its glittering steep, when it rolls to the 
bosom of the earth, will melt away and be lost in vapor ; 
but when it plunges into the ocean, this mighty mass of hail 
and ice is borne and hurled about for ages, in tumult and in 
terror, like a floating monument of the ocean dead. I see 
the tempest on land impeded by forests; and broken by 
thunder-stricken mountains ; but on the plain of the ocean 
it rushes unresisted, and when it has spent its strength, ten 
thousand defying waves, which it has raised up, still rolls its 
midnight terror onward. I see the mountain lake and the 
rippling brooks are only inhabited by the finny tribe — those 



38 ANTIQUITY OF COINS. 

timid prey of the angler ; but the unsounded sea is the home 
of the mighty leviathan, and he ploughs his way through the 
mighty deep. The wave-worn pebble and the rose-tinted 
shell which the ever resistless tide has left upon the wave- 
washed beach, as scarcely worthy of its notice or its care ; 
and the pearly gem which the pearl-diver obtains, at the risk 
of his life, are all that puny man can obtain from that great 
treasury, the ocean. And there are those groves of coral 
which wave over the pavement of the unsounded sea ; and 
those vast halls of amber that glow in the ocean's depths. 
And, on the ocean, too, thrones have been won and lost. 
On the fate of Actium was suspended the empire of the 
world. And, in the gulf of Salamis, the pride of Persia 
found a grave. And the crescent set forever in the waters 
of Navarino. At Trafalgar and the Nile proud nations 
tottered on a pivot, and held their breath. They, whose 
life is on the deep, may, at sundry times, little reck of the 
perils that daily environ them. But this is the result of their 
being inured to the danger ; like the humble peasant, who, 
rocked by the thundering tread of the earthquake, at the 
trembling base of Etna and Vesuvius, sleeps soundly, even 
though it were his last sleep, and the sun should rise over 
the ruins and tomb of a second Herculaneum. 

And now, dear reader, you ask how know I all these 
mighty and bloody deeds of old, and what brought the proud 
Eoman and the haughty Briton to the field ; and made man 
explore the burning tombs of volcanoes, and peopte the 
mighty ocean with his works ; and made the world a witness 
to these sights and scenes ; and I answer, — a few little speech- 
less fellows — coins. And these coins are — I challenge the 
world to question — immortal in their patina ; which have 
been shaken from a lump of turf, and have, exultingly, been 
discovered to be British, mingled in a mass with those of 
Claudius, Gallinurs, and the Constantines. 

The discoveries in Syria and in Affghanistan, should be 



ANTIQUITY OF COIN'S. 39 

mentioned here as notable illustrations of the interest which 
ancient coins will excite, as connected with locality ; for the 
former may, by means of their old money, ascertain the 
names and the religion of unstoried cities, as the latter has 
already exhibited to your astonished gaze, whole dynasties 
of mighty monarchs, of whom history is entirely silent. 



•*» 



THE POET AND THE MUSICIAN. 

BY NOEL BYRON. 

The billows of ocean are dashing on high, 

The dark forests wave, and the hoarse winds sigh; 

The thunder is pealing its terrible roar, 

And twilight is painting the lonely shore. 

Such sounds are sweet to the poet's ear ; — 

But, child of music, what seekest thou here ? 

From, the grandeur of thunder I borrow the power 
To swell the loud organ in calm vesper hour ; 
From the wail of the night wind so mournfully low, 
I catch the rich cadence of Sorrow's deep flow ; 
Mellifluous harmony bursts on mine ear ; — 
Then ask me not, poet, wherefore I am here. 

In the grandeur of Nature so awful sublime, 
Where forests re-echo the down falling pine ; — 
In such sounds is there nought that discordantly breaks, 
To destroy the rich fancy thy genius creates ? 
For voices untutored now burst on mine ear, — 
Is there nought in this wildness or harshness to fear ? 

41 



42 THE POET AND THE MUSICIAN. 

From the bosom of Nature all harmonies flow ; 
And couldst thou her wondrous arrangements once know, 
Thou wouldst find her vibrations exquisitely sweet ; 
For the waves of old ocean that break at thy feet, 
Stars twinkling above, and earth's dullest clod, 
All join in the chorus — " Our Author is God" 

When music, companion of angels divine, 

The brother of Poesy, left his fair clime, 

A halo to throw o'er man's desolate way, 

And light up his soul in adversity's day 

On nature he looked, and his spirit rose high; — 

Ah ! here the rich treasures of harmony lie ! 

But say, brother spirit, what glorious thought, 

From the wings of the wind has thy genius caught, 

That wraps thee in holiest revery now, 

And, shadow-like, gleams o'er thy soul-speaking brow ? 

My soul is oerwhelmed, entranced with delight, 

For visions of purity, lovely and bright, 

Around me are smiling, — but, alas ! what am I, ^ 

Poor worm, that their radiance should dazzle mine eye? 

And Nature, magnificent, beautiful, rare, . 

In features unnumbered, is greeting me here, 

Oh, infinite Wisdom, miraculous skill ! 

Look, wonder, my soul, and, adoring, be still. 

Then, brother, our arts shall be blended in one; 
To improve and ennoble mankind, let us on. 



THE POET AND THE MUSICIAN. 48 

Regardless of sorrows, all meekly we'll try 
To mingle our songs with the powers of the sky. 
From the cot of the poor to the stateliest dome, 
On the pinions of truth together we'll roam. 
Our strains shall be dear to the happy and gay, 
And the woes of the widow and orphan allay. 



LOGAN'S LAMENT. 

BY NOEL BYRON. 

Poor Logan, weary, faint, besoiled with dust, his palsied arms lean 
against yon sturdy oak, and gazeth calmly on the curling smoke that rises 
in volumes from the red man's home. He weeps, he sighs. Some precious 
visions, fraught with joyous memories and enchanting scenes, come vividly 
o'er his mind, and thus he whispers to the outspread scenes : — 

How man j an hour and moment sweet 

Have swiftly flown away, 
Since 'Death thy shaded, cool retreat, 
At early morn we used to meet, 

And linger out the day ! 

The hand of care had carved my brow 

With excavations deep ; 
Yet, still life's happy morning glow 
Its light upon my heart did throw 

And lull despair to sleep. 

Loved friends and youth, those playmates dear, 

No more are laughing nigh ; 
Some have been pillowed on the bier, 
And died unfavored by a tear, 

Or e'en a mother's sigh. 

45 



46 LOGAN'S LAMENT. 

Oh ! spot of innocence and love, 

Blest spot of by -gone days ! 
The wise their scowling brows may move,- 
The stoic harshly may reprove, — 
Yet will I chant thy praise. 

Ah ! they can shed the grateful tear 

O'er ancient Greece's tomb ; 
Can stand, in fired fancy, near 
The dying Koman's solemn bier, 
Yet have no tear for home. 

They, too, can weep upon the urn 

Where Spartan heroes rest ; 
Yet feelingless and coldly turn 
From holier themes, and dare to spurn 
The scenes their fathers' blessed. 

The joys of youth are budding blooms 

Upon the waste of life, 
Which manhood's turbulent simooms 
Bear quickly to their graves — their tombs, 

With wild exulting strife. 

Yet oft, when years have passed by, 

When lonely seem the hours ; 

He looks, with sorrow-ladened eye, 

And doth the scattered leaflets spy 

Of those once fragrant flowers. 



Logan's lament. 47 

He looketh back, and there surveys 

A parched and dreary wild ; 
Then, gazing through life's winding maze, 
Perceives the spot of boyhood's days, 

And longs to be a child. 

Long cherished spot of native land, 

Thou ever hast been nigh ! 
And now, while quickly flows life's sands, 
With tottering limbs and palsied hands, 

Poor Logan comes to die. 



VIRTUE. 



BY NOEL BYRON. 



Mortal ! on time's storm-tossed ocean, 

Striving safety to ensure, 
Midst its wild and dread commotion, 

Thy frail bark can scarce endure. 

Seeking to secure the blessing 
Of a peaceful, happy life ; 

Sighing for the sweet caressing 
Of the gales that blow not strife ; 

In the search for constant pleasure, 
Take thee, Yirtue, for a guide ; 

She will prove a priceless treasure, 
When the fiercest storms betide. 



49 



ALL HAVE A PAET TO DO. 



BY NOEL BYRON 

Men and women ! up ! be doing ! 

Help each other on the way ! 
Aid with heart and hand the dawning 

Of a great and glorious day. 

Earth has not her stationed teachers ; 

Truth's not centred in a few ; 
All men, more or less, are missioned, — 

Each one has a part to do. 

Lend your aid, however little ; 

Lend your talent, though its small ; 
Trifles thrive by combination, 

Working for the good of all. 

Truth walks slow, and needs th' assistance 

Of the many with the few ; 
Every one, however feeble, 

Has a part that he can do. 

50 



ALL HAVE A PART TO DO. 51 

Stop not, faint not, in your doing ; 

Still press onward, — you will find 
Brilliant sunbeams flashing ever 

From the archives of the mind. 

Earth has not a human creature, 

Meanest pauper you may view, 
If he has a spark of reason, 

But he has a part to do. 

All men must assist each other, 

Though it but a trifle be ; 
Flowing streams make flowing rivers, 

Eivers make a mighty sea. 

One may do the work of many, 

Many help the toiling few : 
But 'mong all men, great or little, 

Each one has a part to do. 

Many pillars bear the temple, 

Yarying in their strength and height ; 

And, though various in their greatness, 
Each contributes to its might. 

What though men proclaim their weakness, 

And their talents small and few ? 
Each one shares in human greatness, 

Each one has a part to do. 



52 ALL HAVE A PART TO DO. 

Men and women ! up and onward I 
Faint not till jour work is done ; 

Grow in ardor, grow in earnest, 
For the dawn has now begun. 

Then let none be found a lagging, 

Let stirring impulse bear you through ; 

All must aid the day that's dawning, 
Each one has a part to do. 



ELENOIRE. 

A LEGEND, IN IRREGULAR VERSE. 

BY WALTER SCOT 

By the lonely waters wending, 

In the dim and starless night, 

A maiden fair, with locks dishevelled — 

Where the wolves had latest revelled— 

Gazed with orbs of wondrous light. 

There was not speck nor spark to see 

To other eyes than hers, and she 

Looked steadfast and unceasingly, 

And through the gloom there came nor went 

No gleam save that her glances lent ; 

And they were like the wizard flame 

That from mysterious silence came. 

She was of beauty wondrous fair ; 
Part veiled amid her golden hair, 
Which o'er her limbs of gentle moul 
In long and silken tresses rolled, 

53 



54 ELENOIRE. 

Through which, as played the wind anon, 

Her beauty's dazzling whiteness shone. 

The light played in her eyes of blue, 

O'er all its radiant splendor threw, 

Her lips were parted as she would speak ; 

And paleness sat on her rounded cheek, 

As the wind of winter rudely bleak 

Had passed and paused with its breath of ice, 

To chill that form of such rare device. 

! step not nor stir in that lonely wood, 
Nor break the spell of the lady's mood ; 
Nor startle the air with a human breath, 
Nor taper on the dusky heath. 
'Tis dire — the spell on that lady's face, 
That searches the weird and ebon space, 
A spirit burns in the eyes of fire 
And the heart of the lady Elenoire. 

0, few may go near the wood, nor pause 
At the form so fair, the brow that awes ; 
And few may venture to pass that way, 
Twixt evening's dusk and morning's gray. 
She wore a cross, — but the cross was found, 
Buried a fathom under ground ; — 
And where it lay on her breast of snow 
Was cypher-stain of fiery glow, 
Which she hid anon with a cry of woe. 
And where her rosary used to be, 



ELENOIRE. 55 

Was a wreath of gloomy cypress tree. 

And her hands were clasped on a gem of gold — 

A fearful device with a maiden's heart 

Crushed in a serpent's glittering fold. 

Twixt fear and joy she shuddering gazed 

On the serpent's head from its coil upraised ; 

And their eyes they met, and the flame of green 

Played out from the serpent's eyes between. 

0, piteous was that lady's face, 

For that she struggled in horrid spell, 

Which priest nor crucifix could tell, 

And tears fell down her cheek apace. 

The misletoe hung its wreath on high, 

O'er the branching oaks that crossed the sky, 

Nor waved nor stirred ; and the lady's sigh 

Was heard alone above them all ; 

And her hands were raised, but not to pray ; 

Her lips were parted, but none may say " 

The words that came and passed away, 

With a low and wailing fall, 

0, heaven ! — once her lips would utter, 

But all around made fearful mutter ; 

And the words they palsied on her tongue, — 

Whilst forms of spirits swept along, 

Sadly she trembled and paler grew, 

But wilder light in her eyes of blue 

Flashed out on the dark with lightning fire, 

That the green eyed serpent in the gem of gold, 

Seemed to expand in his scaly fold, 



56 ELENOIRE. 

And his burnished crest grew red and higher. 

! it was fearful there to see 
A beautiful lady like as she, 
Alone in that wood at the hour of dread, — 
And the oaken branches, overhead, 
Clustering thick like her flying hair, 
Webbing and crossing the murky air. — 
Alone in that wood, nor bead nor charm ; — 
heaven ! shield her well from harm, — 
Alone in that wood, nor word of prayer ; — 
But the green eyed serpent watching there. 

God of heaven ! guard the hour, — 

Who may bide the spirit's power ? 

Why do the lady's lips wax blue ? 

Why does her wan cheek blanch anew ? 

Why does her bosom white and fair 

Faster throb in the chilling air ? 

Why does she start and pant with fear, 

And long to go, yet linger there ? 

"lis a charm more dread than tongue may guess 

That holds such wondrous loveliness. 

But hark ! to a bell from tower remote, 
Filling the air with warning note, 
Who that hear may hold their breath, 
And look afar o'er the dusky heath, 
And see the knight of the sable plume, 



ELENOIKE. ' 57 

Who rideth fast througn the midnight gloom I 

Shield, nor spear, nor cross has he, 

But a burning brand, in his red right hand, 

Flashes anon o'er his sable mail, 

And maketh the darkness darker be. 



The trees are stirred with a boding sound, — 
And whispered laughter shuddered around. 
Then it seemed that every leaf on the oak 
Whirled once in the air and mournfully spoke ; — 
And the lovely lady paler seemed 
Than snow where the winter moonbeams streamed' 
And save that her wan lips moved anon, 
And the weird light from her eyes that shone, 
She stood as a statue of rarest mould, 
Fair and high, calm and cold. 

0, God in heaven, hear our prayer ! — 
Not a breath the wind is making, 
Yet the heavy leaves are shaking 
Fitful in the startled air ! 
Heaven's influence, break the spell I 
Chills of horror shudder round, 
And the red-leaved forests shiver, 
While the rent oak's branches quiver 
To a boding sound, 
Who from yonder riven trunk, 
Tangled thick with mossy growth, 
Bursts with low unhallowed oath, 



58 ELENOIRE. 

And stands beside the lady's form ? 

He a knight of sable mail, 

Visor shading brow as pale ; 

Ghastly as the lurid hue 

That lights the charnel's darkness through. 

But, beneath that visor's rim, 

Burn two eyes like molten ore ; 

And their burnings never dim, 

Drop their fire flakes over him ; 

And he gazeth evermore. 

In the lady's face he gazeth 

With those wild and glowing eyes ; 

And she cannot choose but gaze 

Steadfast in that demon face. 

O'er her wan lips pass the sighs 

That her spell-bound heart is making, 

While 'tis breaking, wildly breaking. 

Bound her waste the demon's arm 

Like a serpent closely twineth ; — 

He breathes his breath upon her cheek : — 

She shudders to a stifled shriek. — 

God ! save her in this hour ! 

Oh ! his fiendish eye divineth 

That her heart is nigh to break ; 

That the passion hath its power. 

His eyes are so like the snake's, 

Cursed gaze of basilisk, — 

Two fold eyes of hellish hue, 

Glaring with their thirsty lustre ; 

Drinking up the fatal beauty 



ELENOniE. . 59 

Of those piteous eyes of blue. 
O, hath passion cursed charm, 
Hither borne of damning spell ! 
Oh ! the look of woe imploring 
Bursting from those eyes, adoring 
Man and demon framed of hell ! 

'Tis midnight dark on turret and tower, 

From beacon cliff to lady's bower; 

And the deep mouth'd hounds, since dusk have 

howled 
About the gates in the castle wall ; 
And the miserly priest, in darkness cowled, 
Was seen to pace the Baron's hall, 
And sprinkle anon, with his holy water, 
The chamber lone of the Baron's daughter ; 
And make the sign on his sable stole, 
Full oft for the absent lady's soul. 
Nor Baron slept, — but to and fro 
He paced by the burnt logs' ashen glow ; 
And often paused to mark the gleam 
Of fitful fire-light that broke his dream; — 
On the pale sad face on the pictured wall, 
Whose eyes still followed him through the hall. 
And his visage darkened that he knew 
For many a night his daughter's form 
Was seen to leave the castle gate, 
And seek the woods, however late, 
Through darkness and through storm. 
He had seen the spell-fires in her eyes, 



60 ELENOIRE. 

And heard the maiden's fearful sighs ; 
Neither cross, nor bell, nor book, 
Could charm away that fatal look. 
This night the Baron could not rest : — 
The raven had croaked its omen dire ; 
And gust of wind had swept the crest 
From the hoary helmet of his sire 
He saw in each the fatal sign 
Augured to one of Etholf 's line : — 
"Whose heir should be a maiden fair, 
Of beauty wild and wondrous rare ; 
Whose lot, ere the race of Etholf died, 
Was to be a demon warrior's bride. 
The winds are vexed about the gate, 
And darkness bear in every gust ; 
The walls look bleak and desolate ; 
The armour, shook by the hands of fate, 
Falls heavily in its rust. 



Over the draw-bridge, all alone, 

Looking like one who sees but death, 

And sternly treading with quickened breath, 

That none may hear a moan, 

The Baron passed from the hoary halls, 

And looked but once on the gloomy keep ; 

Then he heard a sound sweep through their walls, 

That rang from tower to dungeon deep ; 

He touched the cross on his heavy sword, — 

But onward went like the pledge of Fate ; — 



ELENOIRE. 61 

There was never a raj to cheer his way, 
But the thickened air in masses lay, — 
A ruddy black like the Hand of Hate. 
And ever anon, through the midnight foul, 
He'd hear the blood-hounds, tortured, howl. 
Dense as the forest in darkness grew, 
Knotted and gnarled in snaky twist, 
He onward sped, nor raised his head 
Till he saw a blue and lurid mist, 
Spread like a mantle about a dell, 
Where the hemlock grew in dusky maze, 
And the light in phantom paleness fell 
Through the cold and ghastly haze. 

Onward — God ! spare the sight ! 

Close to the rift of a mighty oak, — 

And the lightning fires about them broke, — 

The lady and the demon-knight. 

The Baron makes nor sign nor pause, — 

But, pallid yet firmer, he nearer draws : — 

Oh ! who hath a father's heart ? — 

He whispers a word as he cometh nigher, 

He whispers a word — 'tis " Elenoire !" 

The lady makes no start. 

His voice is husky — she may not hear, — 

His voice it trembles — he now may see her : — 

Oh, woe ! the Baron's ire ! 

Her eyes are fixed in a burning gaze 

Her locks are tangled in many a maze, 

And the demon standefch by her. 



62 ELENOIRE. 

Tall is the knight with the sable plume, 

Standing aloof in the midnight gloom ; 

But the lady suddenly shrieks aloud,— 

Swift is the Baron with brand of steel, 

Heavy the blow the hand may deal ; 

But the knight stands firm and proud, 

And laughs a laugh in the Baron's ear, 

As the brand descends through forms of air, — 

But smites in its course a bosom bare, 

White as the drifted snow at morn, — 

Bu' now is crimson and rudely torn : — 

And the father's hand hath done the deed. 

Oh God ! how the demons shriek ! 

The Baron's lips are quivering, 

By the dying lady's cheek. 

He may not gain one word or look, 

But only wipe the ruddy stain, 

That ripples like a dying brook 

From the heart that ne'er shall beat again. 

Oh red, oh red is the cruel stain, 

That ebbs away o'er the breast of snow. 

The first faint ray of a morning star 

Looks on its pool with a mournful glow ; 

A shudder runs round and round the tree , — 

And murmurs of grief sob through the air ; 

And the wind sweeps o'er the Baron's brow, 

Pallid and coldly- lying there. 

Hush ! hush ! the curse, the laughter wild, 

That mocks the Baron's groaning woe ; 

And the demon-knight, with his lurid spell, 



ELENOIRE. 63 

Swift through the midnight darkness goes, 

The Baron's locks are hoar and gray, 

And they are dabbled o'er with blood ; — 

0, woe the night ! 0, woe the day ! 

He starts and crieth through the wood, 

He taketh a poniard from his waist ; — 

Its hilt is the serpent's foul device ; — 

He crosses himself with fearful haste, 

And kisses the weapon thrice. 

Oh ! who shall see him weltering low 

In his own dark blood by the morning's glow, 

And his beauteous daughter lying near, 

With the gory fern for her silent bier ? 

Ever between the night and day, 

At the boding hour in that lonely place, 

The spirits meet — so the peasants say — 

And the lovely lady red with gore, 

Wandereth sighing evermore ; 

The raven flaps his wing of shade, 

And croaks all night in tower and hall ; 

While the blood-hounds howl at the ruined gate ; 

The banners rot on the crumbling wall. — 

There is the omened woe by seer and sign 

Fulfilled in the last of Etholf 's line. 



